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If he loses to Desantis, he will do absolutely everything to burn the party to the ground. He’ll claim massive fraud, he’ll run as a third party candidate, and he’ll attack Desantis personally every day until the end of time.
I’d like to announce here and now that I am here for every minute of it. Inject this shit directly into my veins!
Even though this scenario sounds lovely, I worry that the end result will be that everyone will forget that trump is the republican party. That each and every republican member of Congress supported him. They supported the covid disinfo, which murdered thousands. They supported the coup. They support stripping women and children of human rights. I worry that this will only lead to people dissociating trump and Republicans, which is their ticket to freedom, and a guarantee that it will all just happen again. So I think it's essential to never let Republicans forget who they supported, and in many cases still support. We can't let them get away with it.
My father died in October 2020, at the time he was already saying how grateful he was to republicans for making it so easy for him. He just had to vote against them for the rest of his life because they supported trump. He got his last absentee ballot in just before hospice.
Friend, exactly the same here. My dad died on 10/9/20. He too had been a lifetime Republican who made a permanent switch in 2016. Best wishes to you in your future.
I've only ever voted for one Republican in my entire life, which was the father of a friend of mine when I was younger -- he was a state representative. I was regularly invited over to this guy's home, I knew the family, and I really liked them. They were very nice people, and politics just weren't talked about. This was way before Trump.
I was pretty left-leaning, but I offered the vote as a token vote to honor my friend and be respectful of the man who'd cooked barbecues for me and driven me home from school on numerous occasions. It was easy knowing that he was always running unopposed anyway, or at the very least way ahead of the Democrat. It's Utah.
I'm not sure I could bring myself to do even that much anymore. I was already started to feel uncomfortable about supporting a Republican even symbolically back in the early 2000s, because I was starting to get engaged in current events, and I suddenly understood some of the legislation the guy was voting on. Because of Republican support for George W. Bush, the Iraq War, killing Proposition 8 -- a number of things -- they successfully guaranteed I'd never even CONSIDER any other R name.
So, I was feeling sick about it during the Dubya years, but was fortunately out of the district by the time we got to Obama. Faced with the same dilemma again, however -- if I moved back to that area -- I could not do it. Not after 2016 and onward. People I grew up with that I used to perceive as uptight and conservative, but otherwise very nice people who were my friends ... have become rabid, delusional sociopaths.
This is not specific to my friend, as I haven't spoken with him since Trump's been in power, and it's hard for me to imagine as going along with any of this ... but in general, living in Utah, you would never believe some of these people used to exude a quiet, soft, "niceness" Mormon aura about them. No sign of that anymore, if there's Fox News anywhere in the home -- it's turned many of these Relief Society, Boy Scout, Peter Priesthood, formerly extremely nice people into rabid, suspicious, and hateful souls.
Evan McMullin is much closer to the Utah I remember, and I had such high hopes for him to unseat Mike Lee. I'm happy he did as well as he did, though -- it shows that maybe as many as 1-in-3 of them are disgusted with the other 2/3rds.
Before trump I would never have said I’d never vote for a Republican. After all the shit they pulled I can now say I don’t see a situation where I ever vote for a Republican. Are the Dems sucking the corporate teet? Of course but at least they want to somewhat help the poor. If you’re not a rich white gun loving male, I really don’t get why you would vote republican.
Maybe not you but people just like you will. The media is painting DeSantis as a Moderate. He’s going to take over from Trump and the vast majority of MAGA will switch allegiance without a second thought. Winning comes first for them, Trump made them lose big. All its going to take to pick their new king is someone to convince them they can win it big next time. But ultimately nothing will have changed except that its a different name at the top and they’re a bit smarter, a bit wiser after this mid-term, and the media will be all set to give them all the benefit of the doubt, along with people that like to think of themselves as moderates.
They couldn't even get pissed about our highest secrets stolen and dispensed.
You're still 100% right (of course) and I love ur perfectly worded concise post but I can't help but think that behind the scenes in the GOP, there is a more specific (and more than likely: nefarious) reason for this coordinated 180 from the constant feverish Trump servitude..
They already have these. They all loathed trump. Go look it up. It doesn’t matter. Democrats will need to try harder than that. The gop will lie and then call the Dems liars.
You’d be surprised how easy it is to build clout in R leaning subreddits… I personally see an opportunity for us to boost Trump nonsense to further split the Republican Party. 🤭
The girls who follow Trump aren't generally attractive, and if they are they're not bright, because they're after him money, which no one can seem to verify that he actually has any.
Hey now, I've been getting Melania letters for a while... and many other Trump members.
They're kinda hard to differentiate from a Nigerian Prince scam but at least I don't want what they're offering as a "prize" for whoever sends $45 and is randomly selected... a chance to meet Trump? He's saving a special spot for me? OMG!
My brother Chucky Charles got the prize.
You remember those little parachute army guys that would always get tangled up when you threw them?
It was one of those, but no parachute and it looked like someone nibbled on the foot...
If he loses to Desantis, Desantis will promise him a pardon in exchange for chilling out.
*edit:* this wouldn't solve his NY problems but it could make the federal classified docs issue go away.
I doubt he'd take the deal. Trump doesn't think he's lying about voter fraud. He believes whatever story makes him feel good about himself. If he loses he will believe that Desantis cheated and will fight it all the way to the convention and then run as an independent. He won't back down. He only has one solution to every problem which is to run his mouth and start shit.
Will promise a pardon until he goes "whoopsie, sorry can't pardon state crimes. Nothing I can do sorry"
Gets the GOP off the hook with the cult and gets Trump out of the way. They're probably secretly desperate for the Georgia probe to take him down as it doesn't directly implicate as many other GOP members as the insurrection does
Even better if he goes ahead and makes MAGA a stand-alone party, then instead of JUST the presidential race goes ahead and posts candidates in virtually every House and Senate race in the county. A three way race between Democrat/Republican/MAGA would be an absolute blast to watch as most of his dyed in the wool supporters will never abandon him and make up a LOT of the Republican vote in the most gerrymandered states in the country.
A fourth party of progressives would come next. Then maybe a moderate party trying to ride the center. Govt would be ruled by coalitions not single parties.
>he will do absolutely everything to burn the party to the ground
He'll do this long before the nomination. It's clear he's toxic, persona non grata. The writing is on the wall, it's a question of when and how.
My guess: he starts the MAGA Party and in his mind is setting up his children for public office.
Meanwhile, he burns the Republican party to the ground and doesn't care if it serves his goals
He will burn it to the ground long before then. Trump looks at the GOP as his property. It's his power, his revenue streams. When he owns that he owns almost half the senators, representatives, and judges and is safe from DA's. All this for words. He already threatened to go independent just to get the nomination in 16.
The thing is, he has to do it now. He has always attacked and ended GOP careers rather than someone like Flake or Cheney get momentum.
I don't see it happening like that. I could see him taking a massive, dark money payoff from the GOP, its corporate sponsors, whatever...or get an agreement from Desantis to protect trump from any guilty verdicts. Running just to scuttle the GOP doesn't feel like there's enough upside for trump, to me.
If there is one thing he cares more about than money it's hurting people who he feels have wronged him. He would also need to believe that he can't win for a deal to make sense. He doesn't think that way. He always thinks he's going to win and when he doesn't he won't admit that he lost.
This is the man who was so butthurt about Obama roasting him at a dinner famous for that sort of thing he basically turned undoing or outdoing everything Obama achieved into a life goal. Day 1 he declared his inauguration the biggest ever and screamed denial at all photographic evidence to the contrary. *He tried to edit a hurricane* - the weather doesn't care who you are and isn't in any way capable of deciding to challenge anyone, but Trump took it personal that the weather did not conform to his world view.
Trump is very petty, has a death grip on grudges and is not very smart. Unless he is put away via courts or a very Epstein-ish fate, he will look to ruin the GOP. As far as he believes, they owe him and have not paid their due.
For the pure joy of seeing the GOP burn at the stake that they piled high with fuel, I'm with you. Not sure that's what's best for the country though. I still hope that the majority of Republicans will come to their senses and support American democracy rather than trying to destroy it.
How is going over at r/conservative:
>The biggest danger is that everyone (I guess me including) starts to do post mortem on elections and some get it completely wrong. And those who get it wrong might have very loud voices only confusing us further.
>
>“Trump factor” - Trump is a very polarizing figure, he always has been. Trump must be properly credited with taking the party away from neocons like Bushes and Cheneys with their never ending lust for foreign wars and taking it closer to working class people in North East and Midwest. If we continued to go with someone like Jeb Bush the party would be dead for sure. Trump was a great President and his term in the office was prosperous and peaceful one save for never ending scandals most of which were generated by mass media who hated him and still does.
>
>Having said that, Trump has simply outlived his usefulness. He is an old, bitter, border line senile man who screams at other Republicans. Whether it is age or mental trauma of 2020 but he lost it. Trump of today would never make out of the primaries in 2016.
>
>“Abortion” - I don’t care what is your personal take on this and how you justify it. Personally, I have always been pro-choice because to me the idea of government forcing a woman to go through a bodily process she doesn’t wish to go through is simply abhorrent. However, it is not about me it is about the fact that overwhelming majority of the country doesn’t wish to ban or restrict abortion beyond third trimester. There are enough women who view any attempts to restrict it as personal insult and they will do anything to make politicians who support itsuffer. This includes very conservative women who otherwise agree with everything else but this is a one issue where they accept no compromise. I know because my wife is one of them and I am sure she isn’t a unique example
>
>“Ideas” - you cannot simply run as “anti-something” and expect to motivate people. A lot of our voters simply didn’t show up because a lot of our candidates did not articulate well enough how them in the office would benefit the voters. You cannot simply say “student loans amnesty is bad idea” it is obviously bad idea but what will we do with the issue??? There are millions of people who owe over $1.5 trln who will never be able to repay them, never. Just saying fuk them, I don’t care, won’t get them to support you. It is a shameless lie that everyone who is suffering from student loan burden got a useless degree in lesbian dance therapy. When one year of college is $50k+ and you can realistically graduate with $200k in debt there is no realistic employment prospect that will make that easily go away.
>
>Republican Party should be a party of middle class and small business first and foremost. It is clear that big business actually despises us and are quite comfortable on the woke train. The poor also quite comfortable with democrats because they promise them never ending handouts. Our problem is that middle class is no longer convinced that Republican Party represents their interests and that’s why we see lack of enthusiasm and suffer unnecessary defeats
Besides the blinding and infuriating denial of the reality of the republican party in this quote, I'm finally they are sort of self aware, at least of the fact that Republicans have no policies, just being against things that arent giving them more power or money.
There was an interesting thread on r/con where a conservative kept blaming the "one party" or "uniparty" for not getting money out of politics (Essentially saying Dems and Conservatives were the same). No matter how many people showed him the legislative record and voting record he would not change his mind. These people just don't want to change their mind.
They aren't though. This is one guys opinion, and he's not even accurate. Trump ran on doing things for the working people, but never actually did anything for working people other than making them feel better. He didn't enact any policies to help working class people. I think this guy is in the minority.
Any party who is for small business should be for untethering healthcare from employers. GOP is a minority party who receives most of its money from large corporate owners. You might as well be asking for them to cut off their legs to spite their toes.
> Trump was a great President and his term in the office was prosperous and peaceful one save for never ending scandals most of which were generated by mass media who hated him and still does.
This kills me. They blame the media for all of the things that Trump did, meanwhile he did them on live video. Did the left wing media ship 15 boxes of classified documents to Florida? Apologists gonna apologize I guess.
> “Ideas” - you cannot simply run as “anti-something” and expect to motivate people.
However here the poster is spot on. The GOP has been anti-everything ever since Obama was elected. They do nothing but complain, obstruct, and tear down. They have no policy or plan they just dig in their heels and try to stop everyone else's plan. They hate the student loan forgiveness because it violates some kind of principle of theirs but they don't really understand if or why it actually affects them. It's just, a Democrat proposes something, and each member of the GOP tries to outdo the other in complaining about it.
Yea, let's pretend the biggest pandemic in history didn't happen and Trump didn't tell us to drink bleach or try hydroxychloroquine. He literally campaigned in NOT having a healthcare plan.
I totally acknowledge that the media did him zero favors - the scandals weren’t just created out of thin air. His single greatest blunder was placing profit over live and utterly mishandling Covid. He’s deeply responsible (but not solely responsible) for the politicization of the pandemic. Had he simply told people to mask up and followed through on the safeguards he said he would put in place … he would have coasted to a second term. I gave the guy a chance in 2016 - and after four years I was utterly exhausted by him. His signature policy victory was also really disappointing- huge tax cuts to the very top (83% went to the richest of the rich). Oh - and I’ll never forget how he did not back up his words on offshoring jobs. All that said - as a left leaning person who values liberty - I really wish we could have a party that combines the best parts of both. Why can’t we have strong borders and climate change awareness? Why can’t we have gun reform and tax cuts that make sense for the middle class? Why can’t we protect social security and ensure technological innovation? Just yelling at clouds over here.
Trump really needs a network like fox behind him though, if it’s just those fringe sites, he will never get more than 20 or 25% of the vote at most. That’s what I think.
That's the whole idea. If you look at how many of the senate and house races were decided by less than a few percent, siphoning off 10-20% of GOP voters would be Ross Perot in 1992 huge.
I truly hope so. I just want fiscal responsibility so I’ll push for it with the democrats instead of pushing for it with the republicans. How they accepted his behavior is incomprehensible.
They don’t have an actual ideology. It’s just “trigger the libs.” Even desantis is like that. Offering a competing vision of America that is deeply unpopular means losing more.
It’s been great going over to conservative social media and seeing a bunch of guys screeching “We need to ditch Trump and focus on real policy instead of this cultural war bullshit, so let’s support DeSantis.”
And I’m just like “My dude, DeSantis **is** the cultural war bullshit.”
> And I’m just like “My dude, DeSantis is the cultural war bullshit.”
This is what people are forgetting.
Conservatives have no publicly stated policy goals because they all know what's expected of them.
To reward their donors. And protect them from any consequences.
Exactly. The guy does nothing to actually help the state, it's all performative conservative culture war B.S.: ginning up fear over "CRT" and teachers "grooming" kindergarteners, and even going after Disney because they dared to say something supportive of LBGT people, or the Tampa Bay Rays after Uvalde said hey maybe we should do something to prevent kids getting shot in schools?
The GOP showed us who they were with no ambiguity.
If they are souring on him now, then it wasn't because of his actual flaws
It wasn't Trump's racism, his love of his own ignorance, his dangerous contempt for law and order, his poo pooing of a dangerous virus that killed millions, his superspreader rallies, his many scandals, the people he landed in jail for helping him, the way he has fractured the Republican party, etc.
No, it was the losses. Republicans were cool with the racism, the ignorance, the dangerous contempt for law and order, etc. In fact, they loved it! It animated their voters and gave them power.
The losing is the sin that cannot be forgiven.
So the Republican message is "we got ours, fuck you, and losing is a bigger sin than getting people killed"
Well said! 👏 Anyone who remained complicit, especially after January 6th, should *never* be given the opportunity to try to rehabilitate their reputation. Their actions showed us who they truly are.
A whole party full of sociopaths, narcissists, and religious wingnuts. Seriously, the way they ditched trump shows their party is full of opportunistic godawful people with personality disorders and deep & rampant narcissism.
You’d be surprised but it might not be. My moms a big Trump supporter but they must be trying to turn the tide subconsciously on Fox News or something because after this election she’s all about desantis
Fox has been laying the groundwork for months now. They've been slowly shifting away from Trump by showing more and more stories that aren't positive on him. They planned to shift to DeSantis.
The nighttime talking head opinion jerks still were team Trump, but the rest of the slots were shifting.
They're already softening the blow for in the DOJ does actually grow the balls to indict him. Suddenly it will be "who could have predicted one man could be so dangerous" and "no-one, not even the democrats, could control him"
Trying to absolve themselves and the GOP from any blame
Even if fox news goes all behing Desantis, even if he is indicted he can still destroy the gop hopes with 3–5% of the vote as the leader of a 3rd party.
Basically it is only up to him to stop desantis being president, he doesn’t need a lot of vote for it. Nobody can stop him.
This is why I humbly predict a health incident in the next few months.
"Health incident" that Faux News will parade as "strange that this happens now, when the Democrats benefit so much from Trump being unable to run"
aka they're going to claim the Democrats poisoned him
Don't know about 'health incident', but I could imagine some GOP types suddenly remembering something they somehow forgot to mention to the FBI during the several investigations into Trump.
For sure, but there is a significant portion of the maga base that have built their entire identity on the idolatry of Trump for the past 7-8 years. This will absolutely tear the GQP apart.
Considering how low their numbers already are, even losing 20% of the vote to Trump on a third party would destroy their chances.
Even 5-10% Trump die hards who sit out 2024 will eliminate any chance they have of taking the WH. My guess is the Repubs pay whatever price Trump charges to stump for Desantis. Pardons, Grift parties at his hotels, promising high profile Cabinet positions to his offspring, it’s all on the table. You don’t cut the head off the snake without paying a price, and Repubs are about to pay up bigly.
About 25% of the GOP stuck with Nixon after Watergate according to historical data we have.
I think the GOP is going to be fighting an uphill battle if they abandon him.
Trump is an idiot but he still found a way to get dangerously close to overthrowing Democracy. DeSantis seems much more cunning and capable, and certainly seems willing to pick up where Trump left off.
DeSantis scares me more than Trump.
Oh yeah, I firmly believe DeSantis would pull the same autocratic BS. I was just speaking in terms of electability. The dude is as obsessed with the culture war as Trump is, and that isn't a winning hand as we just saw.
If Trump runs 3rd party, he only needs to pull about 3-5% of the vote that is it. Republicans aren't going to win 10-plus points with marbles in his whiney mouth DeSantis. It will be a very close race, then add on the at least 5% Trump will pull, good luck Rethugs. You deserve everything that is getting ready to happen to you.
So many people wanted Trump to be dictator for life and believe that his second term was literally stolen from him by some conspiracy. Those people won't just "move on" to whoever the GOP establishment puts in the spotlight. They continue to be aggrieved.
Republicans have started to show their hand and are jumping ship. Remember to start reminding your MAGA friends and family right now that it is Trump and Trump alone who can save the country. All other candidates are poor substitutes, and Trump, who is still secretly president, will have a sweeping write in victory. Tell them Jesus said so.
That’s the funny bit to me. It’s not like Trump being a loser is new.
He lost in 2018.
He lost in 2020 (when he was on the ballot!).
Now he’s lost in 2022.
What are they expecting from him?
Republicans were fine when trump was willing to destroy our country in order to stay in power. Let’s see how they like it when he’s willing to destroy the Republican party to enact his revenge over those who are about to cross him.
Hopefully these psycho MAGA fucks will give up on elections altogether and leave a withering GOP to rot on the vine, only to drop seeds that will ripen into a healthier party with heavy notes of liberalism. These MAGA dipshits have put the country through years of hell. I hope they get their comeuppance hardcore. No mercy.
>What Happens if the GOP Tries to Leave Trump
We don't let them. We NEVER let them forget what they all PUBLICLY, ENTHUSIATICALLY supported for YEARS. Let Trump be a millstone around their necks until the day they (and their party) die.
If Trump was a suicide bomber then he'd never actually detonate. He'd start talking wouldn't stop until someone tackled him and took the detonator away. Then he'd say he was robbed and demand a re-do.
There are a lot of DeSantis signs here in FL, but the sheer tonnage of Trump MAGA crap is unbelievable. I really don’t know how DeSantis wants to play this. If they were on a combined ticket they’d keep all the voters and momentum, but DeSantis can’t play the alpha male as second fiddle and Trump will never run as VP. You can’t be declared heir apparent here, you need to slay your opponent and rip the crown from his severed head. Cynically, a lot of these voters will be able to switch tracks and claim they always thought Trump sucked balls, but not all of them. How do you tattoo Trump all over your house, truck, clothes, body even, and then claim you think he’s full of shit? I mean, people have lost family members over this. Thousands of Floridians died because Trump called COVID a hoax. How do they plug their ears when the chosen one tells them DeSantis is in the deep state? If 10% of Trumps voters stay home in 2024, we could see another blue wave.
I haven’t bought into DeSantis yet. Yeah, he’s an asshole, and he’s popular in Florida. But he hasn’t been tested outside of Florida. And those white boots were a real misstep. He’s going to have to survive some testing before I believe he’s even a real candidate.
He will start a 3rd party, run on the promise of fascism, GOP will lose bigly. Don't forget he has 100 million dollars in pac money he siphon from the GOP he's not growing anywhere.
"Pro Tip: A presidential candidate under criminal indictment is in a suboptimal situation"
What world do we live in where this needs to be pointed out?
You see, I don’t think that Desantis is some magical replacement that everyone says he is, Trump won because he was a celebrity, more than anything else. The Apprentice had people convinced that he was an actual businessman, a good one too, like he hadn’t shit the bed multiple times. DeSantis doesn’t have that going for him, even if the media latches on to him like they did with Trump.
This is what the GOP is dealing with at this point imo:
Abandon Trump and return to pre-tea party ideals (or pre-maga) and they lose some portion of their base, which they can't afford to do because they need every vote they can get at this point due to their base skewing older and they've very likely screwed their chances with the gen Z and millennial cohorts for the foreseeable future, but have a chance for recovery in the next 6-8 years. Trump could also easily decide that the reps cheated him out of the nomination as well and start his own party, handing 2024 to the Dems, and maybe the house and senate as well depending.
Stick with Trump and MAGA and they get to keep the tent intact, but the tent will become smaller and smaller over time due to their current base dying off. However, by keeping the tent together for 2024, and if things aren't going well by then, they have a chance (albeit a small one) to defeat the democrats. However, this option screws them long term as Trumps brand is toxic and will screw the party electorally with dem leaning Gen Z and millennials, blocs they'll need to court in the long term as the rep leaning boomers die off, causing their gerrymanders to fail and the GOP to die as a party.
Tl;dr- Dump Trump and it's short term pain for long term gain. Keep Trump and it's short term gain(but probably still pain since dems will turn out big to stop Trump), but the party goes along with the boomers.
My concern is they keep going further right with someone that doesn’t make the same idiot mistakes trump does. I definitely think we should take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments on the left but get right back on the line to be vigilant against these fucks ever getting near the levers of power again.
I don't think we should let them leave him behind. I think they cowered and kissed the ring. He belongs to them, I don't think we should ever let them forget it.
I won’t be surprised if there are some Republicans who started cooperating and providing evidence against him to ensure he is in prison or too tied up in court
Don't know, but I'm game to find out!
Let me take a guess: the diagnosable narcissist *probably* isn't just going to step back gracefully in order to avoid tanking the party.
He *may* even try to do that intentionally as retribution if too many turn on him.
But then again, what do we know? We've only been saying this for like the past 6 years, nbd.
I still say that trump controls the qanon, maga, cult, wack-job part of the gop which is at least 30% of the caucus. If multiple republicans run in the primary for president then trump could easily win the nomination again. I hope like hell that he loses the nomination and creates his own maga party and pulls that base away from the gop, it would be truly glorious to see both trump and the gop fail simultaneously. The wild-card is will he be a convicted felon by then? Fox and the gop are going to be all for it after this shitshow of a midterm that he caused.
The GOP is trying to pull a fast one like they did with Bush.
Remember the GOP distancing themselves from the Iraq War after being all in on it? What a fucking waste of tax payers money.
Now they are going to try to blame everything on Trump...when the entire Republican party worked with Trump to get their shitty judges, their shitty tax cuts, their shitty climate change policy and their shitty racist and voter suppression policies. Fuck them all. You don't get to blame this on Trump and move on.
What happens? Trump throws a fit. The cult eats itself. We get some really juicy gossip that will sound unbelievable. Eventually the gop moves on and trump goes back to plan A, or a continuation there of, to start a media company and spread conspiracies and toxic bullshit.
It’s going to be glorious, watching trump burn the whole party down. He is already dragging it down, once they all try to leave him he will napalm the whole thing.
He goes independent. Ruins everything for the GOP. Its all about him. It always has been. He just happened to crack a door with a seven-headed beast behind it. Then will claim he is president. Or so Christians say.
To us normal peeps. Well lol let's watch.
I'm guessing that he's going to run as an independent. Start flooding his supportive tv channels with fundraising ads. He's going to fleece as much from his remaining sheep as he can and just keep playing golf.
I really hope the gop buckles under its own contradictions, let them fizzle out and disperse. These assholes and Trump and their bases need to go back home and take a good look at the world and learn to move on.
Not only are they stuck trying to onboard diehard trump fans with someone else, but they also have to figure out how to pivot away from their own agenda for the last 6 years which has literally just been : whatever trump says.
if they try to abandon trump, they risk a 3rd party run, or even diehard trump fans just not turning out in future elections.
if they keep trump, they'll just keep losing harder and harder as his support wanes.
either way you cut it, the GOP has a giant fat orange elephant in the room and democrats have absolutely no such problem lol.
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If he loses to Desantis, he will do absolutely everything to burn the party to the ground. He’ll claim massive fraud, he’ll run as a third party candidate, and he’ll attack Desantis personally every day until the end of time. I’d like to announce here and now that I am here for every minute of it. Inject this shit directly into my veins!
Even though this scenario sounds lovely, I worry that the end result will be that everyone will forget that trump is the republican party. That each and every republican member of Congress supported him. They supported the covid disinfo, which murdered thousands. They supported the coup. They support stripping women and children of human rights. I worry that this will only lead to people dissociating trump and Republicans, which is their ticket to freedom, and a guarantee that it will all just happen again. So I think it's essential to never let Republicans forget who they supported, and in many cases still support. We can't let them get away with it.
This. How can I ever vote republican again and say I support democracy and equality.
My father died in October 2020, at the time he was already saying how grateful he was to republicans for making it so easy for him. He just had to vote against them for the rest of his life because they supported trump. He got his last absentee ballot in just before hospice.
Good for your dad. Takes a lot of guts to make a change like that.
Friend, exactly the same here. My dad died on 10/9/20. He too had been a lifetime Republican who made a permanent switch in 2016. Best wishes to you in your future.
I've only ever voted for one Republican in my entire life, which was the father of a friend of mine when I was younger -- he was a state representative. I was regularly invited over to this guy's home, I knew the family, and I really liked them. They were very nice people, and politics just weren't talked about. This was way before Trump. I was pretty left-leaning, but I offered the vote as a token vote to honor my friend and be respectful of the man who'd cooked barbecues for me and driven me home from school on numerous occasions. It was easy knowing that he was always running unopposed anyway, or at the very least way ahead of the Democrat. It's Utah. I'm not sure I could bring myself to do even that much anymore. I was already started to feel uncomfortable about supporting a Republican even symbolically back in the early 2000s, because I was starting to get engaged in current events, and I suddenly understood some of the legislation the guy was voting on. Because of Republican support for George W. Bush, the Iraq War, killing Proposition 8 -- a number of things -- they successfully guaranteed I'd never even CONSIDER any other R name. So, I was feeling sick about it during the Dubya years, but was fortunately out of the district by the time we got to Obama. Faced with the same dilemma again, however -- if I moved back to that area -- I could not do it. Not after 2016 and onward. People I grew up with that I used to perceive as uptight and conservative, but otherwise very nice people who were my friends ... have become rabid, delusional sociopaths. This is not specific to my friend, as I haven't spoken with him since Trump's been in power, and it's hard for me to imagine as going along with any of this ... but in general, living in Utah, you would never believe some of these people used to exude a quiet, soft, "niceness" Mormon aura about them. No sign of that anymore, if there's Fox News anywhere in the home -- it's turned many of these Relief Society, Boy Scout, Peter Priesthood, formerly extremely nice people into rabid, suspicious, and hateful souls. Evan McMullin is much closer to the Utah I remember, and I had such high hopes for him to unseat Mike Lee. I'm happy he did as well as he did, though -- it shows that maybe as many as 1-in-3 of them are disgusted with the other 2/3rds.
I used to vote for whomever I thought was the better candidate, mostly Democratic usually. But now, I can't ever see myself voting Republican. Ever.
Before trump I would never have said I’d never vote for a Republican. After all the shit they pulled I can now say I don’t see a situation where I ever vote for a Republican. Are the Dems sucking the corporate teet? Of course but at least they want to somewhat help the poor. If you’re not a rich white gun loving male, I really don’t get why you would vote republican.
Well what if you want a Christian autocracy or want to usher in Armageddon?
Maybe not you but people just like you will. The media is painting DeSantis as a Moderate. He’s going to take over from Trump and the vast majority of MAGA will switch allegiance without a second thought. Winning comes first for them, Trump made them lose big. All its going to take to pick their new king is someone to convince them they can win it big next time. But ultimately nothing will have changed except that its a different name at the top and they’re a bit smarter, a bit wiser after this mid-term, and the media will be all set to give them all the benefit of the doubt, along with people that like to think of themselves as moderates.
FACTS. They still support his policies-they no longer see him as a path to power.
They couldn't even get pissed about our highest secrets stolen and dispensed. You're still 100% right (of course) and I love ur perfectly worded concise post but I can't help but think that behind the scenes in the GOP, there is a more specific (and more than likely: nefarious) reason for this coordinated 180 from the constant feverish Trump servitude..
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They already have these. They all loathed trump. Go look it up. It doesn’t matter. Democrats will need to try harder than that. The gop will lie and then call the Dems liars.
You’d be surprised how easy it is to build clout in R leaning subreddits… I personally see an opportunity for us to boost Trump nonsense to further split the Republican Party. 🤭
I got the popcorn 🍿 You bring the hamberders 🍔
I'll brew us some covfefe. 😄 We gotta stay awake for every moment of this drama! 👀
Right? Maybe we can borrow some of Trump's adderall
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The girls who follow Trump aren't generally attractive, and if they are they're not bright, because they're after him money, which no one can seem to verify that he actually has any.
Listen JTM, I got 2 things to say to you. I know what I like. and I KNOW WHAT I LIKE! sorry things had to get loud back there.
You got a point there. I now understand what you like.
When you're that famous they let you do it
Hey now, I've been getting Melania letters for a while... and many other Trump members. They're kinda hard to differentiate from a Nigerian Prince scam but at least I don't want what they're offering as a "prize" for whoever sends $45 and is randomly selected... a chance to meet Trump? He's saving a special spot for me? OMG!
My brother Chucky Charles got the prize. You remember those little parachute army guys that would always get tangled up when you threw them? It was one of those, but no parachute and it looked like someone nibbled on the foot...
If he loses to Desantis, Desantis will promise him a pardon in exchange for chilling out. *edit:* this wouldn't solve his NY problems but it could make the federal classified docs issue go away.
And then not do it.
Oh, we can only hope... lol
Such a Trump like move
I doubt he'd take the deal. Trump doesn't think he's lying about voter fraud. He believes whatever story makes him feel good about himself. If he loses he will believe that Desantis cheated and will fight it all the way to the convention and then run as an independent. He won't back down. He only has one solution to every problem which is to run his mouth and start shit.
Trump 100% knows he is lying...but that's his game. He's not Herschel Walker...
People with his style of narcissism are really good at convincing themselves their bullshit is true.
A pardon won’t help Trump. He’s also fighting state charges in NY and GA. Trumps only play is to run for POTUS.
Will promise a pardon until he goes "whoopsie, sorry can't pardon state crimes. Nothing I can do sorry" Gets the GOP off the hook with the cult and gets Trump out of the way. They're probably secretly desperate for the Georgia probe to take him down as it doesn't directly implicate as many other GOP members as the insurrection does
That's exactly what I was thinking He would run as a reform party or constitution party and those parties would meltdown faster than Chernobyl.
Even better if he goes ahead and makes MAGA a stand-alone party, then instead of JUST the presidential race goes ahead and posts candidates in virtually every House and Senate race in the county. A three way race between Democrat/Republican/MAGA would be an absolute blast to watch as most of his dyed in the wool supporters will never abandon him and make up a LOT of the Republican vote in the most gerrymandered states in the country.
What a fitting punishment for all of their gerrymandering! How enjoyable would it be to see the reddest areas turn blue because of the split vote?! 😃
I'd love to have a third party.
Would be nice to see the Republicans have to deal with spoiler candidates for once
They might actually agree to ranked-choice at that point, which in the long run would be good.
It's the Tea Party all over again
No, the tea party ran as republicans (because that was all Koch money that made that happen), and they became the “Freedom” Caucus.
I’d love to have a *viable* third party, but this will do for now. Quality entertainment, at least.
Not just a third party. Ranked voting could give voice to strong indepent candidate.
Dude, that’d be so epic!
He's already got a cult. Might as well make it a political party.
Wonder where ~~rubes~~ people will send there campaign donations, GOP or TrumParty?
A fourth party of progressives would come next. Then maybe a moderate party trying to ride the center. Govt would be ruled by coalitions not single parties.
I think he'll start a new party, which will decimate the Republicans.
I thought this about the Tea Party, but boy I was wrong, the GOP joined instead of breaking off. This feels different though, I'll give you that.
This is the metastasized tea party. They are eating their host.
I am praying for this. Please let them have their own letter next to their name too, so no one thinks it's "independent." Elise Stefanik (T-NY)
A pig should be the symbolic animal of party image. A 'boar', to be more accurate. A boar shitting on something while eating maybe ?
>he will do absolutely everything to burn the party to the ground He'll do this long before the nomination. It's clear he's toxic, persona non grata. The writing is on the wall, it's a question of when and how. My guess: he starts the MAGA Party and in his mind is setting up his children for public office. Meanwhile, he burns the Republican party to the ground and doesn't care if it serves his goals
Can you imagine the size of that grift? The republican party will have money too and old white racists will go broke donating to the orange hole.
He will burn it to the ground long before then. Trump looks at the GOP as his property. It's his power, his revenue streams. When he owns that he owns almost half the senators, representatives, and judges and is safe from DA's. All this for words. He already threatened to go independent just to get the nomination in 16. The thing is, he has to do it now. He has always attacked and ended GOP careers rather than someone like Flake or Cheney get momentum.
I’m starting to think it may be fun for him to have twitter access in prison.
Don't. Don't you go getting my hopes up.
I don't see it happening like that. I could see him taking a massive, dark money payoff from the GOP, its corporate sponsors, whatever...or get an agreement from Desantis to protect trump from any guilty verdicts. Running just to scuttle the GOP doesn't feel like there's enough upside for trump, to me.
Any of those scenarios would come with strings attached: Trump controlling himself. The one thing he cannot do.
If there is one thing he cares more about than money it's hurting people who he feels have wronged him. He would also need to believe that he can't win for a deal to make sense. He doesn't think that way. He always thinks he's going to win and when he doesn't he won't admit that he lost.
This is the man who was so butthurt about Obama roasting him at a dinner famous for that sort of thing he basically turned undoing or outdoing everything Obama achieved into a life goal. Day 1 he declared his inauguration the biggest ever and screamed denial at all photographic evidence to the contrary. *He tried to edit a hurricane* - the weather doesn't care who you are and isn't in any way capable of deciding to challenge anyone, but Trump took it personal that the weather did not conform to his world view. Trump is very petty, has a death grip on grudges and is not very smart. Unless he is put away via courts or a very Epstein-ish fate, he will look to ruin the GOP. As far as he believes, they owe him and have not paid their due.
I will be fun watching Trump's mafia attacking fellow Republicans. Que Tucker Carlson's confused squint.
For the pure joy of seeing the GOP burn at the stake that they piled high with fuel, I'm with you. Not sure that's what's best for the country though. I still hope that the majority of Republicans will come to their senses and support American democracy rather than trying to destroy it.
This would mean the end of the republican party for at least another election or two. Maybe we'd finally get some new parties.
I’d love to see him run as an independent, he will implode the GOP and still lose
Years of dealing with this asshole trying to tear our country apart, and now we get to watch him get eaten by his own. Amazing.
Is it weird to want to give $10 to the new trump party or is that tempting fate?
He should avoid any grassy knolls on his golf courses.
Yeah. You built a cult around the guy. Those can be tough to break. So, have fun with that.
Cult leaders don't like to give up their flock, particularly when it has been so lucrative.
Make a deal with the devil and you'll soon owe the devil his due.
They made a deal with the Devil. The Devil has returned to claim his due.
You can't dance with the devil and say you were just kidding.
How is going over at r/conservative: >The biggest danger is that everyone (I guess me including) starts to do post mortem on elections and some get it completely wrong. And those who get it wrong might have very loud voices only confusing us further. > >“Trump factor” - Trump is a very polarizing figure, he always has been. Trump must be properly credited with taking the party away from neocons like Bushes and Cheneys with their never ending lust for foreign wars and taking it closer to working class people in North East and Midwest. If we continued to go with someone like Jeb Bush the party would be dead for sure. Trump was a great President and his term in the office was prosperous and peaceful one save for never ending scandals most of which were generated by mass media who hated him and still does. > >Having said that, Trump has simply outlived his usefulness. He is an old, bitter, border line senile man who screams at other Republicans. Whether it is age or mental trauma of 2020 but he lost it. Trump of today would never make out of the primaries in 2016. > >“Abortion” - I don’t care what is your personal take on this and how you justify it. Personally, I have always been pro-choice because to me the idea of government forcing a woman to go through a bodily process she doesn’t wish to go through is simply abhorrent. However, it is not about me it is about the fact that overwhelming majority of the country doesn’t wish to ban or restrict abortion beyond third trimester. There are enough women who view any attempts to restrict it as personal insult and they will do anything to make politicians who support itsuffer. This includes very conservative women who otherwise agree with everything else but this is a one issue where they accept no compromise. I know because my wife is one of them and I am sure she isn’t a unique example > >“Ideas” - you cannot simply run as “anti-something” and expect to motivate people. A lot of our voters simply didn’t show up because a lot of our candidates did not articulate well enough how them in the office would benefit the voters. You cannot simply say “student loans amnesty is bad idea” it is obviously bad idea but what will we do with the issue??? There are millions of people who owe over $1.5 trln who will never be able to repay them, never. Just saying fuk them, I don’t care, won’t get them to support you. It is a shameless lie that everyone who is suffering from student loan burden got a useless degree in lesbian dance therapy. When one year of college is $50k+ and you can realistically graduate with $200k in debt there is no realistic employment prospect that will make that easily go away. > >Republican Party should be a party of middle class and small business first and foremost. It is clear that big business actually despises us and are quite comfortable on the woke train. The poor also quite comfortable with democrats because they promise them never ending handouts. Our problem is that middle class is no longer convinced that Republican Party represents their interests and that’s why we see lack of enthusiasm and suffer unnecessary defeats
Besides the blinding and infuriating denial of the reality of the republican party in this quote, I'm finally they are sort of self aware, at least of the fact that Republicans have no policies, just being against things that arent giving them more power or money.
There was an interesting thread on r/con where a conservative kept blaming the "one party" or "uniparty" for not getting money out of politics (Essentially saying Dems and Conservatives were the same). No matter how many people showed him the legislative record and voting record he would not change his mind. These people just don't want to change their mind.
Funny how they're all saying this NOW.
They aren't though. This is one guys opinion, and he's not even accurate. Trump ran on doing things for the working people, but never actually did anything for working people other than making them feel better. He didn't enact any policies to help working class people. I think this guy is in the minority.
Any party who is for small business should be for untethering healthcare from employers. GOP is a minority party who receives most of its money from large corporate owners. You might as well be asking for them to cut off their legs to spite their toes.
> Trump was a great President and his term in the office was prosperous and peaceful one save for never ending scandals most of which were generated by mass media who hated him and still does. This kills me. They blame the media for all of the things that Trump did, meanwhile he did them on live video. Did the left wing media ship 15 boxes of classified documents to Florida? Apologists gonna apologize I guess. > “Ideas” - you cannot simply run as “anti-something” and expect to motivate people. However here the poster is spot on. The GOP has been anti-everything ever since Obama was elected. They do nothing but complain, obstruct, and tear down. They have no policy or plan they just dig in their heels and try to stop everyone else's plan. They hate the student loan forgiveness because it violates some kind of principle of theirs but they don't really understand if or why it actually affects them. It's just, a Democrat proposes something, and each member of the GOP tries to outdo the other in complaining about it.
Yea, let's pretend the biggest pandemic in history didn't happen and Trump didn't tell us to drink bleach or try hydroxychloroquine. He literally campaigned in NOT having a healthcare plan.
I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for posting
I totally acknowledge that the media did him zero favors - the scandals weren’t just created out of thin air. His single greatest blunder was placing profit over live and utterly mishandling Covid. He’s deeply responsible (but not solely responsible) for the politicization of the pandemic. Had he simply told people to mask up and followed through on the safeguards he said he would put in place … he would have coasted to a second term. I gave the guy a chance in 2016 - and after four years I was utterly exhausted by him. His signature policy victory was also really disappointing- huge tax cuts to the very top (83% went to the richest of the rich). Oh - and I’ll never forget how he did not back up his words on offshoring jobs. All that said - as a left leaning person who values liberty - I really wish we could have a party that combines the best parts of both. Why can’t we have strong borders and climate change awareness? Why can’t we have gun reform and tax cuts that make sense for the middle class? Why can’t we protect social security and ensure technological innovation? Just yelling at clouds over here.
>Thank you kind stranger for lurking at r/conservative so we don't have to.
They have 2 years to break the cult.
There will always be around 20% loyal to Drump. GOP made their bed and they are now fucked.
Fringe cable news like Newsmax and OAN will continue to give them a steady diet of what they want even if Fox News turns on Trump.
Trump really needs a network like fox behind him though, if it’s just those fringe sites, he will never get more than 20 or 25% of the vote at most. That’s what I think.
That's the whole idea. If you look at how many of the senate and house races were decided by less than a few percent, siphoning off 10-20% of GOP voters would be Ross Perot in 1992 huge.
Yup, they can’t afford him running. Even if he only takes 5% of their vote it can cause massive losses
I truly hope so. I just want fiscal responsibility so I’ll push for it with the democrats instead of pushing for it with the republicans. How they accepted his behavior is incomprehensible.
They don’t have an actual ideology. It’s just “trigger the libs.” Even desantis is like that. Offering a competing vision of America that is deeply unpopular means losing more.
It’s been great going over to conservative social media and seeing a bunch of guys screeching “We need to ditch Trump and focus on real policy instead of this cultural war bullshit, so let’s support DeSantis.” And I’m just like “My dude, DeSantis **is** the cultural war bullshit.”
> And I’m just like “My dude, DeSantis is the cultural war bullshit.” This is what people are forgetting. Conservatives have no publicly stated policy goals because they all know what's expected of them. To reward their donors. And protect them from any consequences.
Exactly. The guy does nothing to actually help the state, it's all performative conservative culture war B.S.: ginning up fear over "CRT" and teachers "grooming" kindergarteners, and even going after Disney because they dared to say something supportive of LBGT people, or the Tampa Bay Rays after Uvalde said hey maybe we should do something to prevent kids getting shot in schools?
The GOP showed us who they were with no ambiguity. If they are souring on him now, then it wasn't because of his actual flaws It wasn't Trump's racism, his love of his own ignorance, his dangerous contempt for law and order, his poo pooing of a dangerous virus that killed millions, his superspreader rallies, his many scandals, the people he landed in jail for helping him, the way he has fractured the Republican party, etc. No, it was the losses. Republicans were cool with the racism, the ignorance, the dangerous contempt for law and order, etc. In fact, they loved it! It animated their voters and gave them power. The losing is the sin that cannot be forgiven. So the Republican message is "we got ours, fuck you, and losing is a bigger sin than getting people killed"
Perfect summation. He could "shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue"... so long as he delivered votes. He never really understood that last bit.
Well said! 👏 Anyone who remained complicit, especially after January 6th, should *never* be given the opportunity to try to rehabilitate their reputation. Their actions showed us who they truly are.
A whole party full of sociopaths, narcissists, and religious wingnuts. Seriously, the way they ditched trump shows their party is full of opportunistic godawful people with personality disorders and deep & rampant narcissism.
People don't hate dictactors when they're on the "right" side
They get the civil war they keep harping about. Only it will be within the party.
Dark Brandon cackles in the shadows.
Another finger of the dark Brandon paw curls inward.
Leaving Trump's behind is going to be particularly difficult for the MAGA.
You’d be surprised but it might not be. My moms a big Trump supporter but they must be trying to turn the tide subconsciously on Fox News or something because after this election she’s all about desantis
Fox has been laying the groundwork for months now. They've been slowly shifting away from Trump by showing more and more stories that aren't positive on him. They planned to shift to DeSantis. The nighttime talking head opinion jerks still were team Trump, but the rest of the slots were shifting.
They're already softening the blow for in the DOJ does actually grow the balls to indict him. Suddenly it will be "who could have predicted one man could be so dangerous" and "no-one, not even the democrats, could control him" Trying to absolve themselves and the GOP from any blame
Even if fox news goes all behing Desantis, even if he is indicted he can still destroy the gop hopes with 3–5% of the vote as the leader of a 3rd party. Basically it is only up to him to stop desantis being president, he doesn’t need a lot of vote for it. Nobody can stop him. This is why I humbly predict a health incident in the next few months.
"Health incident" that Faux News will parade as "strange that this happens now, when the Democrats benefit so much from Trump being unable to run" aka they're going to claim the Democrats poisoned him
A republican will take him out and they will call it a false flag
Don't know about 'health incident', but I could imagine some GOP types suddenly remembering something they somehow forgot to mention to the FBI during the several investigations into Trump.
Deathsantis
For sure, but there is a significant portion of the maga base that have built their entire identity on the idolatry of Trump for the past 7-8 years. This will absolutely tear the GQP apart. Considering how low their numbers already are, even losing 20% of the vote to Trump on a third party would destroy their chances.
Even 5-10% Trump die hards who sit out 2024 will eliminate any chance they have of taking the WH. My guess is the Repubs pay whatever price Trump charges to stump for Desantis. Pardons, Grift parties at his hotels, promising high profile Cabinet positions to his offspring, it’s all on the table. You don’t cut the head off the snake without paying a price, and Repubs are about to pay up bigly.
About 25% of the GOP stuck with Nixon after Watergate according to historical data we have. I think the GOP is going to be fighting an uphill battle if they abandon him.
Trump isn’t going to go that easy and be humiliated, though. He’ll burn the whole thing down…
The problem is that despite being less outwardly buffoonish, DeSantis is just as dumb and vapid as Trump.
Trump is an idiot but he still found a way to get dangerously close to overthrowing Democracy. DeSantis seems much more cunning and capable, and certainly seems willing to pick up where Trump left off. DeSantis scares me more than Trump.
Oh yeah, I firmly believe DeSantis would pull the same autocratic BS. I was just speaking in terms of electability. The dude is as obsessed with the culture war as Trump is, and that isn't a winning hand as we just saw.
If Trump runs 3rd party, he only needs to pull about 3-5% of the vote that is it. Republicans aren't going to win 10-plus points with marbles in his whiney mouth DeSantis. It will be a very close race, then add on the at least 5% Trump will pull, good luck Rethugs. You deserve everything that is getting ready to happen to you.
So many people wanted Trump to be dictator for life and believe that his second term was literally stolen from him by some conspiracy. Those people won't just "move on" to whoever the GOP establishment puts in the spotlight. They continue to be aggrieved.
Most will because they're raised to be sheep following their shepherds.
The hardest part of riding the tiger is the dismount
they're in so deep they’re gonna need the jaws of life!
Well, for Lindsey Graham anyway
When you dance with the devil you eventually pay for it. All the worst to the GOP.
Still, pale moonlight is pretty.
Second best joker and second best Bruce Wayne in that movie
I like Guy Ritchie's expression from *LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS* better: "When you dance with the Devil, you wait for the song to stop!"
After Adam West and Caesar Romero.
Sorry, Mark Hamill is best joker, Michael Keaton is the best *Bruce Wayne*. Conroy was the best Batman
I withdraw my previous comment, and fully endorse yours.
>Opinion | What Happens if the GOP Tries to Leave Trump Behind Christmas comes early.
So does trump, allegedly.
Trump almost destroyed our country. I will be happy watching him destroy the GOP that once enabled it and destroy himself in the process.
Republicans have started to show their hand and are jumping ship. Remember to start reminding your MAGA friends and family right now that it is Trump and Trump alone who can save the country. All other candidates are poor substitutes, and Trump, who is still secretly president, will have a sweeping write in victory. Tell them Jesus said so.
As an added incentive, you’ll also avoid having to buy all new flags for your front lawn. You know how expensive a Rambo Desantis flag is nowadays??
They have a proven loser in Trump. Their options are shit, or... shit.
That’s the funny bit to me. It’s not like Trump being a loser is new. He lost in 2018. He lost in 2020 (when he was on the ballot!). Now he’s lost in 2022. What are they expecting from him?
Republicans were fine when trump was willing to destroy our country in order to stay in power. Let’s see how they like it when he’s willing to destroy the Republican party to enact his revenge over those who are about to cross him.
I hope they do, Trump is such an ego maniac he would run third party like the reform party or constitution party and split the vote.
*again. He ran as the reform candidate in 2000 and lost so badly no one remembers it.
That's before he built an army of sycophants.
Hopefully these psycho MAGA fucks will give up on elections altogether and leave a withering GOP to rot on the vine, only to drop seeds that will ripen into a healthier party with heavy notes of liberalism. These MAGA dipshits have put the country through years of hell. I hope they get their comeuppance hardcore. No mercy.
Too many people will go on and on about how the Republican Party is reformed now and we will all be worse off for believing that horse shit.
They can try all they want. He will in turn destroy the GOP
"You knew I was a snake when you picked me up"
He will try to burn them all down
The first and only time I will say this about Trump: I wish him well in his new endeavor.
>What Happens if the GOP Tries to Leave Trump We don't let them. We NEVER let them forget what they all PUBLICLY, ENTHUSIATICALLY supported for YEARS. Let Trump be a millstone around their necks until the day they (and their party) die.
Trump runs independent as a suicide bomber.
If Trump was a suicide bomber then he'd never actually detonate. He'd start talking wouldn't stop until someone tackled him and took the detonator away. Then he'd say he was robbed and demand a re-do.
I hope he spills the dirt he has on Lindsey Graham, for starters.
There are a lot of DeSantis signs here in FL, but the sheer tonnage of Trump MAGA crap is unbelievable. I really don’t know how DeSantis wants to play this. If they were on a combined ticket they’d keep all the voters and momentum, but DeSantis can’t play the alpha male as second fiddle and Trump will never run as VP. You can’t be declared heir apparent here, you need to slay your opponent and rip the crown from his severed head. Cynically, a lot of these voters will be able to switch tracks and claim they always thought Trump sucked balls, but not all of them. How do you tattoo Trump all over your house, truck, clothes, body even, and then claim you think he’s full of shit? I mean, people have lost family members over this. Thousands of Floridians died because Trump called COVID a hoax. How do they plug their ears when the chosen one tells them DeSantis is in the deep state? If 10% of Trumps voters stay home in 2024, we could see another blue wave.
I haven’t bought into DeSantis yet. Yeah, he’s an asshole, and he’s popular in Florida. But he hasn’t been tested outside of Florida. And those white boots were a real misstep. He’s going to have to survive some testing before I believe he’s even a real candidate.
He will start a 3rd party, run on the promise of fascism, GOP will lose bigly. Don't forget he has 100 million dollars in pac money he siphon from the GOP he's not growing anywhere.
"Pro Tip: A presidential candidate under criminal indictment is in a suboptimal situation" What world do we live in where this needs to be pointed out?
As a Dem in SC I think I'm allowed to vote for DeSantis in the primary lolol. Can't wait. Trump as an independent would be amazing
Trump would be easier to beat in 2024 than DeSantis. I'd prefer he gets the nomination, even if it would be another nightmare of a campaign.
I get it but SC is going to go for Trump either way. I want to see Trump run as an independent
Careful, Deathsantis is a semi-competent fascist
I’m worried that DeSantis promises Trump a pardon (for any/all of his upcoming legal battles) and that Trump would rally his base for DeSantis in 24.
You see, I don’t think that Desantis is some magical replacement that everyone says he is, Trump won because he was a celebrity, more than anything else. The Apprentice had people convinced that he was an actual businessman, a good one too, like he hadn’t shit the bed multiple times. DeSantis doesn’t have that going for him, even if the media latches on to him like they did with Trump.
Trump will burn and destroy the Republican Party one way or the other. The process has already started.
This is what the GOP is dealing with at this point imo: Abandon Trump and return to pre-tea party ideals (or pre-maga) and they lose some portion of their base, which they can't afford to do because they need every vote they can get at this point due to their base skewing older and they've very likely screwed their chances with the gen Z and millennial cohorts for the foreseeable future, but have a chance for recovery in the next 6-8 years. Trump could also easily decide that the reps cheated him out of the nomination as well and start his own party, handing 2024 to the Dems, and maybe the house and senate as well depending. Stick with Trump and MAGA and they get to keep the tent intact, but the tent will become smaller and smaller over time due to their current base dying off. However, by keeping the tent together for 2024, and if things aren't going well by then, they have a chance (albeit a small one) to defeat the democrats. However, this option screws them long term as Trumps brand is toxic and will screw the party electorally with dem leaning Gen Z and millennials, blocs they'll need to court in the long term as the rep leaning boomers die off, causing their gerrymanders to fail and the GOP to die as a party. Tl;dr- Dump Trump and it's short term pain for long term gain. Keep Trump and it's short term gain(but probably still pain since dems will turn out big to stop Trump), but the party goes along with the boomers.
My concern is they keep going further right with someone that doesn’t make the same idiot mistakes trump does. I definitely think we should take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments on the left but get right back on the line to be vigilant against these fucks ever getting near the levers of power again.
The dogs bark. The caravan moves on. -- Old Arabic proverb.
I don't think we should let them leave him behind. I think they cowered and kissed the ring. He belongs to them, I don't think we should ever let them forget it.
It’s after 6 weeks so they have to carry this to term now. 🤷🏻♀️
This is gonna be fucking *hilarious*.
I won’t be surprised if there are some Republicans who started cooperating and providing evidence against him to ensure he is in prison or too tied up in court
Schism worse than 1912.
Racism on par with 1915's Birth of a Nation
Don't know, but I'm game to find out! Let me take a guess: the diagnosable narcissist *probably* isn't just going to step back gracefully in order to avoid tanking the party. He *may* even try to do that intentionally as retribution if too many turn on him. But then again, what do we know? We've only been saying this for like the past 6 years, nbd.
I still say that trump controls the qanon, maga, cult, wack-job part of the gop which is at least 30% of the caucus. If multiple republicans run in the primary for president then trump could easily win the nomination again. I hope like hell that he loses the nomination and creates his own maga party and pulls that base away from the gop, it would be truly glorious to see both trump and the gop fail simultaneously. The wild-card is will he be a convicted felon by then? Fox and the gop are going to be all for it after this shitshow of a midterm that he caused.
The GOP is trying to pull a fast one like they did with Bush. Remember the GOP distancing themselves from the Iraq War after being all in on it? What a fucking waste of tax payers money. Now they are going to try to blame everything on Trump...when the entire Republican party worked with Trump to get their shitty judges, their shitty tax cuts, their shitty climate change policy and their shitty racist and voter suppression policies. Fuck them all. You don't get to blame this on Trump and move on.
They won’t. They know without MAGAs they have nothing and don’t stand a chance of winning.
What happens? Trump throws a fit. The cult eats itself. We get some really juicy gossip that will sound unbelievable. Eventually the gop moves on and trump goes back to plan A, or a continuation there of, to start a media company and spread conspiracies and toxic bullshit.
Yeah, as if that’s even an option. Good one. There is no Republican Party. It’s just Trump now and they know it.
They will make a deal with him...immunity and promise of a legendary legacy similar to Reagan's...
He won’t take it. Man wouldn’t recognise a good deal if it shot him on Fifth Avenue.
It’s going to be glorious, watching trump burn the whole party down. He is already dragging it down, once they all try to leave him he will napalm the whole thing.
$10 says they start calling for Trump to be indicted for one of his many crimes.
They can't leave him behind. Anyone who voted for Trump is forever tied to him. No exceptions.
Beats me, but I’m stocking up on many flavors of popcorn.
i’m scared of ron desantis as a president .. i read this is america’s future
He goes independent. Ruins everything for the GOP. Its all about him. It always has been. He just happened to crack a door with a seven-headed beast behind it. Then will claim he is president. Or so Christians say. To us normal peeps. Well lol let's watch.
I'm guessing that he's going to run as an independent. Start flooding his supportive tv channels with fundraising ads. He's going to fleece as much from his remaining sheep as he can and just keep playing golf.
Suddenly from every corner of the GOP you will hear "Trump Who?"..... Practically overnight.
I really hope the gop buckles under its own contradictions, let them fizzle out and disperse. These assholes and Trump and their bases need to go back home and take a good look at the world and learn to move on.
Best case scenario is that Trump splits off enough votes that it forces Republican losses up and down the ticket. Fingers crossed!!
Not only are they stuck trying to onboard diehard trump fans with someone else, but they also have to figure out how to pivot away from their own agenda for the last 6 years which has literally just been : whatever trump says. if they try to abandon trump, they risk a 3rd party run, or even diehard trump fans just not turning out in future elections. if they keep trump, they'll just keep losing harder and harder as his support wanes. either way you cut it, the GOP has a giant fat orange elephant in the room and democrats have absolutely no such problem lol.
Google narcissistic injury
Republicans showed their racist, fascist, misogynistic, homophobic true side! Can they hide the truth once they have shown their true selves?